| Description | Scope and content:
Committee records, consisting mainly of signed minutes, reports and other supporting papers. Minutes are mainly indexed, within the volumes or separately. They usually follow a standard format:
Supporting papers and reports from Council Officers (e.g. Borough Architect and Planning Officer, Treasurer, Town Clerk and Housing Officer) are interleaved with the actual Committee minutes - to make full sense of an issue or subject, it is necessary to move back and forth between the two elements: Minutes and Papers. The papers from the 1970s are sometimes coded:
o Papers for Action
o Papers for Consideration
o Papers for Information
Most committees from the period 1971-1986 have unrestricted minutes and restricted minutes which were filed in separate volumes and there were two agendas for this period:
o Section 1 - recording that part of the meeting which was open to the public
o Section 2 - recording that part of the meeting that closed to the public, 'as publicity would be prejudicial to the public interest by reason of the confidential nature of the business to be
transacted and because of the need to receive/consider recommendations/advice from the appropriate officers of the council.'
More about exempt or Section 2 meetings:
The Press and public were excluded from meetings dealing with "exempt information" under schedule 12a of the Local Government Act 1972. Known as Section 2 meetings these often included decisions around named cases relating to individuals, families and/or staff.
Section 100 (a) of the Local Government (Access to Information) Act 1985 reinforced this: 'the public and press be excluded from the meeting for consideration of Section 2 items on the grounds that they contain exempt or restricted information as defined in Part 1 Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972. The minutes and papers from Section 2 meetings are therefore subject to Data Protection restrictions. |
| AdminHistory | Pre- and post-1965 committee functions remained largely the same after creation of the Council from its three predecessors, Bethnal Green, Poplar and Stepney.
There were some change to reflect legislative changes in the power of local authorities and shifting of responsibilities between Committees. These functions and responsibilities are defined in the Orders of Reference contained in the Council's Standing Orders.
1971 saw a major reorganisation to the Committee structure which reported to the Council. The following provides an overview of pre-1971 and post 1971, with the series reference codes in brackets. For further details see L/THL/A/23/1/1 for minutes of the Special (Re-organisation) Committee.
Committee Structure: 1964/5 - 1971
Baths Committee (L/THL/A/2)
Children's Committee (L/THL/A/3) - to 1968 only
Civil Defence Committee (L/THL/A/4)
Cleansing Committee (L/THL/A/5)
Establishments Committee (L/THL/A/6)
Finance Committee (L/THL/A/7)
General Purposes Committee (L/THL/A/8)
Health Committee (L/THL/A/9)
Highways and Works Committee (L/THL/A/10)
Housing Committee (L/THL/A/11) to 1967 only
Housing (Building and Development Committee) (L/THL/A/20) from 1967
Housing (letting and Management Committee) (L/THL/A/21) from 1967
International Link Committee (L/THL/A/12)
Libraries Committee (L/THL/A/13)
Public Control Committee (L/THL/A/14)
Recreation and Entertainments Committee (L/THL/A/15)
Co-ordinating Committee for Social Services (L/THL/A/16) - to 1970 only
Special Committee on Parking Policy (L/THL/A/24) - from 1969 only
Social Services Committee (L/THL/A/27) - from 1970 only
Special London Dockland Development Study Committee (L/THL/A/26) - from 1970 only
Special Re-organisation Committee (L/THL/A/23) - from 1968 only
Tower Hamlets Consultative Committee on Street Trading (L/THL/A/25) - from 1969 only
Town Planning Committee (L/THL/A/17)
Welfare Committee (L/THL/A/18) - to 1970 only
Committee Structure 1971-1986:
Administration Committee (L/THL/A/28)
Amenities Committee (L/THL/A/29)
Development Committee (L/THL/A/30)
Ethnic Minorities Committee (L/THL/A/37) - from 1984
Finance Committee (L/THL/A/7)
Health and Housing Management Committee (L/THL/A/31) - to 1980
Health and Consumer Services Committee (L/THL/A/34) - from 1980
Housing Management Committee (L/THL/A/36) - from 1982
Langdon Park Shared Facilities Management Committee (L/THL/A/35) - from 1981
Policy Committee (L/THL/A/32)
Public Control Committee (L/THL/A/14) - to 1980 only
Social Services Committee (L/THL/A/27)
Special Committee on Parking Policy (L/THL/A/24) - to 1983 only
Special London Dockland Development Study Committee (L/THL/A/26) - to 1976 only
Special (Re-organisation) Committee (L/THL/A/23) - to 1972 only
Special Transfer Committee (L/THL/A/28)
Tower Hamlets Consultative Committee on Street Trading (L/THL/A/25)
Tower Hamlets Road Safety Advisory Committee (L/THL/A/22)
Works Committee (L/THL/A/33)
Responsibility for housing matters followed the following Committees post 1986 following abolition of the Greater London Council:
June 1986-February 1989 - Housing Sub-committee (L/THL/A/39/3-4)
April 1989-October 1990 - Social and Housing Services Committee (TH/8890, uncatalogued, please contact staff for further details)
October 1990-May 1991 - Performance Review Sub-committee [a sub-committee of Policy and Resources Committee] (L/THL/A/39/7-8)
From May 1991 financial matters were dealt by Performance Review Committee (L/THL/A/41); strategic matters by Policy Strategy Committee (L/THL/A/40).
There is much overlap in Committee work. Multi-committee reports were produced and information was evidently circulated around the Council and reappears in different forums.
Most committees met every six weeks or so; a complete fair copy set was bound in a volume and paginated and usually indexed within or separately to the volume |